MAN AND ANIMAL

Man & Animal

I was reading the book ‘The First American’ by H.W. Brands published by Anchor Books in 2002 – incidentally, it is a wonderful book that should be read by all who believe that they can shape their own character by reading good biographies --.

Almost in the very beginning I came across the following passage:

QUOTE

I was once emptying the cistern of nature, and making water at the wall. At the same time, there came a dog, who did so too, before me. Thought I: ‘What mean and vile things are the children of men, in this mortal state! How much do our natural necessities abase us, and place us in some regard, on the same level with the very dogs’.  Additional reflection inspired a determination to transcend the gutter in which men’s bodies were consigned to live. My thought proceeded: ‘Yet I will be a more noble creature, and at the very time when my natural necessities debase me into the condition of the beast, my spirit shall, at that very time, rise and soar and fly up towards the employment of the Angel’. ….

UNQUOTE

The ability to identify one’s dharma in a given set of circumstances is what distinguishes human beings from animals. In Hitopadesha, we have the following shloka:

‘AhAra-nidrA  bhaya-maithunam ca sAmAnyam-etat pashubhir-narANAm /

dharmo hi teshAm adhiko visheshho dharmeNa hInAH pashubhissamAnAH //

meaning,     Hunger, sleep, fear and the sex urge are common to men and animals. But the understanding of dharma is the extra quality of man, and without dharma he is just an animal.

According to the dharma shAstras a brahmin ceases to be a brahmin the moment he does one of the following: (this is not an exhaustive list!) (i) defaults on his GayatrI japa, (ii) sells his knowledge (iii) accepts a bribe (iv) urinates, like an animal, while standing, or (v) copulates without wanting a progeny.  If we dare apply this criterion, most of the so-called brahmin-born moderns (including the writer!) should be considered to have lost their brahmin-hood!!!